Frittura di verdure miste (Italian Fried Vegetables)

I was feeling sort of nostalgic today for the Italianfried vegetables my grandmother used to make. They were almost always the start of our family’s six-hour Sunday dinners, laid out (along with a big wedge of provolone) on the table to pick on as we played cards and waited for the main event. Hmmm, they disappeared fast! There’s a saying in Italian: fritte son bone anche le scarpe, even shoes taste good when they’re fried. And it’s so true.

Italian fried vegetables are not at all hard to make, but they can be time consuming, as the various vegetables need to be peeled and cut up, then parboiled, and then fried. One way to cut down on this work is to use frozen vegetables, which respond very well to this treatment. And, in the US at least, the quality of frozen vegetables is often comparable, in some cases superior, to that of fresh ingredients (see below).

Ingredients

Directions

If using fresh vegetables, trim and cut them into bite-sized pieces, then parboil them until tender, drain and let them cool. If using frozen vegetables, let them defrost.

Roll the vegetable pieces in flour, then dip them in a mixture of eggs beaten with finely chopped parsley, salt, pepper and just a bit of grated pecorino cheese.

Shallow fry the vegetables gently in olive oil (‘light’ olive oil will do here) until they turn a light golden brown. The oil should be about 1/2 inch (1 cm) or so deep, or enough to come about halfway up the pieces. Make sure that the oil is just hot enough so that it gently bubbles around the pieces as you place them into the pan. If the oil is not hot enough, the vegetables will turn out greasy; too hot and the egg batter will brown before the insides of the vegetable pieces are fully cooked. You’ll need to fry a few pieces at a time, as many as will fit comfortably in your frying pan without crowding. (If you crowd them, they will steam, and get soggy and greasy.)

You then drain the vegetables, either on a plate lined with paper towels or—my preferred method—on a cooling rack placed over a baking sheet to catch the oil and stray bits of batter. Keep your already fried vegetables warm in the oven while you are frying the rest.

Sprinkle the fried vegetables with salt and serve either hot or at room temperature, with lemon wedges if you like. I promise, they’re addictive!

Notes

The choice of vegetables is yours. Angelina often made her Italian fried vegetables with asparagus, artichokes and cauliflower, but other vegetables are also great fried like this, including broccoli, peppers and—my personal favorite—eggplant. In fact, this is the way you fry eggplant to make a parmigiana di melanzane, eggplant parmesan, or at least the way Angelina used to make it.

As mentioned, however sacrilegious it may seem, when I don’t have access to best quality fresh vegetables, I am a fan of using frozen vegetables for this dish, especially for the ones that require parboiling and cutting up, like cauliflower, artichoke, broccoli or even asparagus. (Vegetables like eggplant and peppers, of course, are another story.) Frankly, I find that, in the US at least, frozen vegetables can equally good, if not better, than ‘fresh’ vegetables that have been picked before they are ripe, shipped across country and force-ripened by gas or whatever other artificial means modern industry has devised, and then left to sit on a supermarket shelf for however long. Frozen vegetables are picked at their best and freezing preserves them that way. Of course, not all vegetables freeze well. Eggplant and peppers, and summer vegetables in general, are not very good frozen. Potatoes take on an ‘off’ flavor when frozen. But for many other vegetables, frozen are a viable and practical alternative.

Another way to fry vegetables is to substitute parmesan for the pecorino and, after the egg bath, cover the vegetables pieces in bread crumbs. It produces a more ‘refined’ dish–but I like this way better. It brings me back to my childhood.

If you have any of the egg mixture left over, by the way, don’t throw it out. Mix it with some breadcrumbs and pour into the pan like so much pancake batter and fry until golden brown. It’s the best part!

These fried vegetables are basically a kind of vegetarian fritto misto, as befits a modest country gal like Angelina. Italian cuisine abounds in fritti misti–the ‘fried course’ was once a standard part of a complete Italian dinner–and there are many regional versions of the fritto misto. My personal favorite, found in coastal areas all over Italy, is the fritto misto di mare. In Rome, they make a wonderful fritto misto alla romana with calf’s brains and artichokes. In Piemonte, they make an elaborate fritto misto with many different meats, crochette and vegetables. In Bologna, the gran fritto misto features bits of mortadella, cheese, semolina croquettes and even ‘fried cream’ (pastry cream enriched and thickened with egg yolk).

If using fresh vegetables, trim and cut them into bite-sized pieces, then parboil them until tender, drain and let them cool. If using frozen vegetables, let them defrost.

Roll the vegetable pieces in flour, then dip them in a mixture of eggs beaten with finely chopped parsley, salt, pepper and just a bit of grated pecorino cheese.

Shallow fry the vegetables gently in olive oil ('light' olive oil will do here) until they turn a light golden brown. The oil should be about 1/2 inch (1 cm) or so deep, or enough to come about halfway up the pieces. Make sure that the oil is just hot enough so that it gently bubbles around the pieces as you place them into the pan. If the oil is not hot enough, the vegetables will turn out greasy; too hot and the egg batter will brown before the insides of the vegetable pieces are fully cooked. You'll need to fry a few pieces at a time, as many as will fit comfortably in your frying pan without crowding. (If you crowd them, they will steam, and get soggy and greasy.)

You then drain the vegetables, either on a plate lined with paper towels or—my preferred method—on a cooling rack placed over a baking sheet to catch the oil and stray bits of batter. Keep your already fried vegetables warm in the oven while you are frying the rest.

Sprinkle the fried vegetables with salt and serve either hot or at room temperature, with lemon wedges if you like. I promise, they're addictive!

My 7-year-old is already a buongustaio. His favorite snack is zucchini blossoms (!). He goes into the garden, picks them, comes back in the house, and hands them to me, without a word spoken. I then fry them alla Angelina — which, actually, happens to be the way my Sicilian ancestors made them. I was telling this to a friend from Castellammare di Stabia, who said that his family added milk to the egg. One advantage is that the fritter than one makes with the leftover flour and liquid is delicious, sort of like a pancake. As to the ortaggi themselves, what are the advantages/disadvantages to adding milk to the egg? What about water? (Isn’t tempora made with very cold water added to the egg?)

A couple of days ago, I made a small, quick stock with a carcass from a small rotisserie chicken. Among other ingredients, I put baby carrots, garlic cloves, and quartered onions. After straining the stock, I saved those three ingredients. As you can imagine, they were ideal for this preparation! So delicious!

Great post! “Sexta-feira Santa” (Holy Friday)is on 6th April. My grandmother and my mother used to do this (all the year). Zuccini was the elected vegetable. In Portugal and in Brazil artichoke is a a “new vegetable”, “haute cuisine”. In Portugal we also fry squids and hake fillets (merluzza fillets, that's what I mean) like that, but without the cheese. We use frozen fish most often, because fresh fish can be rather expensive. Fresh fish is for boiling, stewing, rosting in the oven or simply. to grill. Thank you! Beatriz Tavares

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